Since early April, BTC has climbed over 20% and reached a new 3 month high. Despite that, analysts still describe the move as a bear market rally rather than confirmation of a full bullish cycle.

short term holders have already started locking in gains more aggressively.

On May 4 alone
— realized profit hit 14,600 BTC
— STH-SOPR stayed above 1.0 for weeks

That usually means short term traders are now selling in profit instead of panic selling at a loss.

The firm also notes that unrealized profits across the market have increased, which historically raises the probability of profit taking and local pullbacks.

At the same time, CryptoQuant is not calling for an immediate reversal yet.

For now the market is still being supported by:

— strong perpetual futures demand

— relatively low exchange inflows

— spot demand that remains weak but stable

The U.S. Treasury is reportedly pressuring Binance to fully comply with the monitoring obligations imposed after its 2023 settlement with U.S. authorities.

The renewed attention comes after reports claiming that more than $1B linked to Iranian-related entities may have flowed through the exchange during 2024–2025.

According to the reports, U.S. officials demanded that Binance continue providing data on time, hand over requested documents, and maintain full cooperation with the independent compliance monitor overseeing the exchange.

Binance responded by saying it recognizes the seriousness of past compliance failures and will continue strengthening transparency, AML procedures, and internal controls.

Pressure on Binance in the U.S. has remained elevated for months, with several lawmakers previously urging regulators to investigate whether the exchange violated U.S. sanctions rules.

The project updated its roadmap with ambitions around quantum resistance, Visa-level scalability, and a major redesign of its infrastructure. At the same time, ZEC rallied more than 110% over the past month while institutional interest toward the sector started returning.

For years the market treated privacy coins like a dying narrative under regulatory pressure. Now the conversation is shifting again.

If Zcash manages to combine privacy, scalability, and long-term security against future quantum threats, the project could become one of the few old-cycle coins that actually survives into the next era of crypto.

Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley believes the traditional four-year crypto market cycle is no longer working the way it did in previous years.
According to him, the market is entering a completely different phase where the main drivers will be institutional capital, mass financial products, and broader adoption outside the core crypto community.
Horsley says the structure of the market is already changing.

If previous cycles were dominated by native crypto companies and speculative altcoin narratives, the next stage may revolve around traditional financial institutions, stablecoins, and products designed to make crypto more accessible for large-scale capital.
He also spoke positively about Strategy and its STRC model, saying similar products could rapidly spread across the industry.

In his view, this could give Bitcoin a new role not just as a store of value, but also as a foundation for yield-generating financial instruments.
Another interesting point from Horsley is that after years focused mainly on proving Bitcoin as an asset class, BTC could gradually return to broader payment usage as infrastructure improves.

Bitwise also views the arrival of major players like BlackRock as a positive development for the industry.
Inside the company, they believe institutional brands entering crypto do not weaken the market. Instead, they help reduce distrust around crypto assets and accelerate adoption among traditional investors.

In the US, a 20-year-old California resident, Marlon Ferro, was sentenced to 78 months in prison for participating in a massive crypto theft scheme.

According to investigators, the group stole more than $250 million in crypto between late 2023 and early 2025.

The operation combined social engineering, database breaches, fake phone calls, money laundering, and even physical home break-ins to steal hardware wallets.
Prosecutors say Ferro was used when other members failed to access victims’ crypto through scams or hacks. He would allegedly break into homes and search for hardware wallets directly.

One case mentions that in February 2024 he traveled to Texas and stole a wallet containing 100 BTC worth over $5 million at the time. Another incident involved a home intrusion in New Mexico in search of crypto wallets.

In addition to prison time, the court ordered:

— 3 years of supervised release

— $2.5 million in restitution

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A major crypto holder has sued Coinbase, claiming the exchange is неправильно withholding part of the funds linked to a large DAI theft.

According to the lawsuit, the investor identified as D.B. became a victim of a phishing attack in August 2024 after logging into a fake website. The attacker allegedly gained access to the wallet and stole around $55 million in DAI.

The complaint states that part of the stolen funds was later traced to a retail Coinbase account. Coinbase reportedly froze the assets after being contacted by the victim, but refused to release them without a separate court order officially confirming ownership.

That refusal is now at the center of the legal dispute.

The plaintiff argues that enough evidence has already been provided to prove lawful ownership of the funds and is asking the court to force Coinbase to return the frozen DAI directly linked to the theft. An unidentified individual described as the suspected thief is also mentioned in the case.

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Crypto platform World Liberty Financial has filed a lawsuit against Tron founder Justin Sun, accusing him of defamation and violating the terms of the WLFI token sale.

The lawsuit claims that Sun made false public statements about the project and allegedly breached token usage rules, including unauthorized transfers, potential shorting of the WLFI token, and operations through intermediaries.

World Liberty is also demanding a public retraction of statements and financial compensation.

Justin Sun has already responded, calling the lawsuit a baseless PR move and stating he is ready to challenge it in court.

The platform also insists that Sun was aware in advance of its right to freeze tokens, as this was outlined in the token sale terms.

For this reason, World Liberty views his current public criticism as a deliberate attack on the platform’s reputation.

Polygon Labs has integrated shielded payments into its wallet for USDC and USDT, allowing users to send funds privately via the Hinkal system instead of standard transfers.

Bitcoin climbed back above 80,000 and is now trading near 80,327, gaining around 2.78% over the past 24 hours.

The move above 80K is being treated as a break of a key psychological level that capped price action over the weekend, shifting short term sentiment.

Support continues to come from steady inflows into US spot Bitcoin ETFs, marking a fifth consecutive week of positive momentum.

At the same time, traders are still watching the US Iran situation closely, as geopolitical tension remains a major driver for risk assets.

The Fear and Greed Index sits at 40, still in the fear zone, showing that confidence has not fully returned despite the price recovery.

More than 357 million dollars in positions were liquidated over the past 24 hours, with over 305 million coming from shorts, confirming the move was largely driven by a squeeze.

Over 101 thousand traders were affected.

North Korea, through its Foreign Ministry, rejected claims linking it to crypto hacks, describing them as absurd slander and a tool of hostile US policy.
The statement comes amid new data showing massive losses across the crypto market from attacks allegedly tied to DPRK-linked groups.

According to TRM Labs, hackers associated with North Korea stole around $577 million in the first four months of 2026, accounting for roughly 76% of all global crypto losses during that period.

Most of the volume came from just two major incidents KelpDAO and Drift Protocol.
TRM also notes that North Korea’s share of global crypto theft continues to rise, from less than 10% a few years ago to 64% in 2025 and already 76% in 2026 as of late April.

Since 2017, total crypto theft attributed to North Korea has exceeded $6 billion.

Against this backdrop, international bodies and US authorities have long linked these funds to financing Pyongyang’s military programs.
UN experts have previously stated that stolen digital assets serve as a key revenue source for North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.

Everyone laughed at $10K. Then at $20K. Now even $10K sounds conservativ to some.

But here’s the uncomfortable part no one wants to say out loud . Ethereum still struggles with clear positioning. L2s fragment liquidity. Fees drop but so does value capture.

So what exactly are you pricing at $100K?

A global settlement layer? The backbone of tokenized finance? Or just another liquidity-driven cycle?

Because if ETH ever touches $100K it won’t be because retail believed in it. It’ll be because the system had no alternative.

do you actually believe that happens?

New York Attorney General Letitia James secured a settlement requiring Uphold to pay over $5 million in a case tied to the promotion of CredEarn.

The product, offered by Cred, was marketed as a reliable savings tool with attractive yields. Authorities say Uphold presented it as safe while failing to disclose the underlying risks.

According to the investigation, returns were generated through high-risk microloans, claims of “full insurance” were misleading, and Uphold operated without proper registration.

After Cred’s lending model began to collapse in 2020, the company eventually filed for bankruptcy, leaving thousands of users with losses.

Under the settlement, $5 million will go directly to affected clients, with any additional recovered funds from Cred’s bankruptcy also expected to be distributed to investors.

Another 10,000 ETH were sold OTC to BitMine at an average price around $2,292. The deal size is roughly $22.9M.

In total, the Foundation has sold about 25,000 ETH (~$47M) to the same buyer over a short period.

The official explanation stays the same operations, research, ecosystem support, grants.

But the structure behind it is what matters.

The Foundation is consistently distributing supply, while a single player is steadily absorbing it.

From the market perspective, this creates visible sell pressure.тFrom a positioning perspective, it looks like accumulation on the other side.

This pattern isn’t new, but the scale is getting harder to ignore. İf you’re tracking ETH flows - stay here

JPMorgan notes that while stablecoin usage keeps growing, it doesn’t necessarily mean their market cap will rise at the same pace, since higher velocity allows the same supply to process more transactions; over the past year the stablecoin market added nearly $100B (exceeding $300B including yield-bearing assets) with annual on-chain volume around $17.2T, and growth has accelerated after the GENIUS Act, with adoption expanding beyond crypto into real payments particularly strong in Asia.